Nobody showed up with weapons. Nothing blew up. The world did not end.

For more than an hour yesterday, self-described “race realist” Jared Taylor and Saint Mary’s University philosophy professor Peter March debated racial diversity on Rick Howe’s Hotline radio show.

Only two protesters showed up.

Samantha Wight told as many people as she could the debate was on, but many people, including her, had to get to work.

“Someone needs to be here to voice their concerns,” Wight said. “I was expecting more people, but the reason we came was because we weren’t expecting a lot of people, as well as the obvious reasons.”

Judy Haiven, a Saint Mary’s University professor, said Taylor should take his racist views and go home.

“I think people who preach hate shouldn’t be given a platform,” Haiven said. “They have the right to those views, but when we give people like that a platform, it seems to me we encourage society to be more racist, and that’s the last thing we need.”

Two women also stopped by to tell the CJCH receptionist they thought the debate was outrageous.

Taylor told Howe’s audience that racial diversity is a failure because it produces high crime rates, inter-racial violence and divisiveness.

People naturally want to spend time with others of their own race, he said, pointing to neighbourhoods where immigrants move in and white people start to vacate.

“If diversity was a strength, people would be naturally attracted to it, but they aren’t. People prefer the company of people like themselves,” Taylor said.

He argued that racial violence is a product of diversity.

“The U.S. is considered more multi-racial than Canada. You have to lock-down prisons 24 hours a day because blacks and Hispanics would be at each other’s throats otherwise,” Taylor argued. “If you keep revelling in this fantasy that racial diversity is a strength, that’s where you’re going to end up.”

Black Americans were enslaved, then denied basic rights for hundreds of years, countered March, so the U.S. isn’t a good example of racial diversity.

“Do I see any benefit from racial diversity in America? No. This is not a scientific test of racial diversity; it’s a scientific test of what happens when you enslave and bully people.”

Howe had originally asked March to visit the studio yesterday before the SMU debate. When the university pulled the plug on the talk, March asked to bring Taylor along for his scheduled interview at CJCH.

“I thought it was an opportunity to let him speak his mind and let the people of Halifax and Dartmouth make up their own minds,” said Howe, a Daily News columnist.

“The callers on the program have applauded the move, welcomed the opportunity to hear these people and we’re now discussing what is a very important issue in Nova Scotia.”

Peter March is proposing a series of debates with Jared Taylor.

The Saint Mary’s University philosophy professor wants to keep the debate going on campus, possibly hiring TV cameras to film it in the classroom.

March said he’s pressing the university to allow him to do so, but he hasn’t heard any feedback.

SMU said it had made a video tape of yesterday’s radio debate, and those wishing to view it should contact March directly.

March says there’s value in discussing racial diversity because few people know why they shouldn’t be racist.

“They know in their gut that there’s something horrible about it, something unacceptable,” March said. “They don’t get the time and the teaching . . . to understand why their racism is unacceptable.

“Therefore, the anti-racist attitude that they hold is not held on firm ground, and whenever they have a negative experience with race, they’re likely to become racist themselves.”

[Editors Note: To read the original story, you will have to scroll down the page that the link takes you to.]

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